The New Stuff

Naked Holidays In Theater: Unwrap This New York

New York, New York – a helluva town! And if you happen to find yourself in the midst of the magically festive holiday heartbeat of the world, you'll have the opportunity to catch a little Christmas cheer in the Ace of Clubs theater – if you can “bare” it.

“Naked Holidays” is New York's newest show in the vein of “Saturday Night Live” where the performers sing, dance, and jump through sketch comedy skits occasionally clad only in holiday spirit. Talk about your jingle balls.

According to TheaterMania, the show opens “with brief snapshots of familiar Christmas and Hanukkah moments -- a man struggling through one of the less popular dreidel songs and continues with a very long imagining of how Adolf Hitler celebrated Christmas, entitled, 'No One Enjoys Christmas More Than Hitler.' ”

Not everybody is feeling this cast's mistletoes though. In fact, New York Post theater critic, Frank Scheck, really beat up the show writing, “nearly two dozen highly enthusiastic and uninhibited young performers, this misbegotten attempt at a Christmas-style 'Oh! Calcutta!' reveals far more bare skin than talent. Its mixture of comic sketches and a smattering of holiday songs manages to be witlessly vulgar and unsexy at the same time.” If any of our naked little elves are reading this, cheer up, take a deep breath, and take into consideration, this is coming from a man with the name, Scheck – which let's face it, sounds like an unsexy sound one might make while passing gas and and getting punched in the stomach at the same time.

TheaterMania's, Chris Kompanek, goes on to review that in the finale, “ 'The Naked People Play,' tries to deconstruct the impact and intentions of having nudity in a show, but ultimately, the people who hold our attention are the ones without clothes.” There's a shocker!

Kompanek further says that, “the biggest problem, however, is the show's structure. Because there are so many disparate parts, there needs to be something holding it all together. If the opening emcees came back throughout, some of the transitions might not feel so jarring.” Okay okay... so “Naked Holiday” didn't get rave reviews. But the show does give away complimentary eggnog. There's something Spiderman on Broadway doesn't do. The most you can hope for at that show is that a cast member doesn't snap another cord while flying through the air and land on your chestnuts. I say three wise-men cheers for “Naked Holiday” unwrapping their gifts for us. Listen, if someone asks you when you're sitting on their lap what you want for Christmas... you might as well be honest. Am I right?